Case IH and New Holland announce final approach to fight emissions

And they say it couldn’t be done. Ever since the EPA came out with its latest emission guidelines, called Tier 4, most engine experts purported that it would take two engine technologies to meet the required reductions in soot and smog.

That is, engine makers would need to a) burn them off, and b) squirt the exhaust with a urea solution, both designed to cut nitrogen oxides and particulate matter to their lowest levels yet.

Well, this week, Case IH and New Holland proved the experts wrong. These rival sister companies, both owned by Fiat Industrial, announced that they’ve refined the squirt method, called Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR), to such lengths that they can bypass having to recirculate the pollutants through the engine to burn them off, a strategy called Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR).

By staying with this SCR engine after-treatment system, the companies say they can get an average of 10% better fuel economy than their Tier 3 predecessors with EGR technology, which they maintain interferes with engine operations. In addition, the companies claim the tractors can achieve higher horsepower levels.

“When the emissions components from the engine are removed, the engine can breathe and produce high levels of horsepower,” says David Stark, Case IH North America sales and product trainer. “There are no emissions components on the engines, which is one reason for the high horsepower levels.”

Deere, on the other hand, announced in March that it will add SCR technology to its current EGR approach, maintaining it will get fuel economy that is as good as or better than its record-setting 8320R row-crop tractor powered by a Tier 3 engine.

Either way, and regardless of the approach, all equipment companies will have to have their final Tier 4 engines in place by EPA’s deadline of 2013 for engines 74 hp and below and 2014-2015 for engines 75 hp and above.